When recording distorted bass.....

[Fragle]

There's not much in the way of dynamics in death metal regardless. Even if his bass is buried in the mix, you still hear what he's playing because he writes most of the songs.

Check out "Anesthesia" on Kill 'Em All for bass distortion played with fingers.

well, actually he said that in the studio he likes to use a sansamp to dirty up his signal just a tad, in order to give it that *live* feel - he states that live the bass never is totally clean even if it's set that way. he also says that he only adds a slight crunch rather than a real fuzz which apparently is better for players that use a pick instead of their fingers. what he said
btw, i remember andy posting something about setting your bass dirtier than you think it should be so it can be heared more clearly, but i might as well be mistaken

 

[madbutcher]

Well went in and recorded it last night. Used a 421 and sm57 on a 10 with the 421 on axis and the 57 off. Then I put a D112 on a 15". I like the sound I got. I ended up messing with the settings on the amp more than anything, different gain structures. Kind of like Schmeir sp?? from Destruction's sound. Sounds like a low distorted guitar really. All 3 mics I compressed really hard. I played around a little in mixdown nad I will probably end up rolling everything above 300 or so on the D112 and just use it for the low beef, and find a mix of the other two for the main sound.

I'll post some clips when I can.

 

[Fabbio]

not sure if it's what you're going for, but my band recently got some really good results going for a strong clean bass tone with a bass v-amp pro, and having some drive added at mixdown

www.myspace.com/disvisioned

Hey Cobra!

I have a Bass V-amp and I'm not very satisfied by it! I usually end up using PodXt (the guitar one) to record bass on my things.

Can you please post the settings to the sound you used for this bass session? I'm eager to use it and be proved wrong on the uselessness of Bass V.amp.

:Smokin:

 

[cobrahead1030]

Hey Cobra!

I have a Bass V-amp and I'm not very satisfied by it! I usually end up using PodXt (the guitar one) to record bass on my things.

Can you please post the settings to the sound you used for this bass session? I'm eager to use it and be proved wrong on the uselessness of Bass V.amp.

:Smokin:

the gain was added post-recording, i'm not sure what was used...but i can send you the original bass settings in a few days probably

do you have the rackmount version, or the smaller one? (we used the rackmount btw)

 

[Fabbio]

the gain was added post-recording, i'm not sure what was used...but i can send you the original bass settings in a few days probably

do you have the rackmount version, or the smaller one? (we used the rackmount btw)

I have the Pod-like grey one, not the rack one.

Thank you for the settings! You can e-mail me through the forum or leave me a PM.

 

[cobrahead1030]

i checked this weekend,
we had it in studio 3 mode (not sure what the equivalent of that in your model is) all the controls were right around noon, no compressor or fx, but stupid me forgot to note which model we were using

i'll check it again wed. night (the v-amp is part of my bass player's rig which stays at the band studio, so i only have access to it twice a week)

the only problem we've had with it, is that it tended to clip sometimes with the active warwick bass we're using...a tiny bit of mid cut from the bass's (active) eq took care of that tho

it sounds suprisingly good, running into a 4x10 cab thru a power amp

 

[ConspiracyBass]

I think everyone if forgeting how important the bass is. A Fender P-Bass is, in my opinion, the best bass for recording distorted. Though you can't go wrong with a Musicman or a G&L. Though, both of those instruments have more Fender style sounding pickups (which obviously they should considering who designed em). Bartaloni's or EMGs don't give you the right tone from the get go to get that distorted sound. Though, I could be wrong.